Downtime Tuesday

Downtime Tuesday Episode 19 with Panser covers Heroes of the Storm rewards, WoW in the Hall of Fame, and more! As announced last week, Panser and Perc will also be doing a live show immediately after the Warcraft Q&A ends, on Saturday June 13th at twitch.tv/wowhead.

PTR Character Copy Disabled

Arvaanas

Hey everyone!

We've reached a point in 6.2 testing where going forward, builds deployed to PTR are going to be flagged as "release" versions. This won't affect much in terms of content for Public Testers, however it will disable certain test-realm only features in preparation for retail launch, namely in-game Character Copy. Existing characters will not be affected and the feature will return after 6.2 testing has completed.

As always, thank you all for helping us test 6.2 PTR!

COO Paul Sams Leaves Blizzard

Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams has stepped down from Blizzard to join Ready at Dawn as the new CEO. As Sams explained on the Battle.net forums, the change was prompted by a personal decision to move back to Texas and he remains immensely loyal to Blizzard. For more details, check out the announcement in GamesIndustry.biz.

Below is Sams' personal statement:

Blizzard

First, yes, this is really Paul Sams, former COO of Blizzard. I am posting to clarify that I have immense loyalty to Blizzard, and it pains me to see my name associated with posts criticizing the company. I would never leave Blizzard unless I fully was confident the company was healthy and well poised for continued success. I have had the privilege of working at Blizzard for nearly 20 years, and Blizzard has given me everything I have in life and taught me everything I know about the video game industry. I even met my wife at Blizzard. Last year, we made the family decision to return to my wife's home state of Texas. It's as simple as that. I want to watch my boys play high school football, be near my daughter who attends University of Texas and enjoy the great city of Austin. Not only that, I want to be able to support the Denius-Sams Gaming Academy at UT more as well. My opportunity to work with my friends at Ready at Dawn is fortuitous and allows me to continue my work in the industry I love while living in the place I love with the people I love. Not many people get an opportunity to enjoy that trifecta in life. I feel blessed and am fully aware that Blizzard paved this road. The fact that I am proud and excited to now work at Ready at Dawn in no way diminishes my love and respect for my dear friends and colleagues at Blizzard.

Selfie Scavenger Hunt Week 4

Week 4 of the Selfie Scavenger Hunt has started! Each week, you take a picture of your character in a specific location (no MkII型自拍神器 required) and get entered to win BlizzCon tickets, an iPhone 6, and more! To enter, you'll upload the screenshot here and provide your First Name, Last Name, Country, and Battle.net Email.

For Week 4, you'll fly high above 沙塔斯城 in Outland and then snap a selfie as you fall to your death.

#BlizzCG2015 Social Media Contest

Blizzard has announced yet another contest this week! This one covers social media and helps promote Blizzard at gamescom 2015. The prizes include digital codes and a free trip to gamescom in Cologne, Germany. The contest officially opens on June 22nd--use the #Friends hashtag to show how you enjoy Blizzard games with your friends.

Blizzard

Blizzard has an amazing show planned for you at gamescom 2015. With just over two months to go, we’re really looking forward to this year’s epic event, and we want to share our excitement with you. So we’re giving you the chance to win some awesome prizes* in the weeks leading up to the show —including a free trip to gamescom in Cologne, Germany!

We’d love you to take to social media and show us your geeky passion for Blizzard games. Each week starting Monday, June 22, we’ll be giving you a special hashtag to inspire your creativity. Find a way to show us what the theme means to you: get drawing, filming, baking, writing, stitching, sculpting, painting, dancing, posing, acting… When it’s ready, share on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Vine, using the hashtag of the week along with #BlizzGC2015. We’ll draw 45 winners at random each week to receive some fantastic digital rewards. So the more you participate, the more chances you have to win!

To help you plan ahead, check out the full list of themes below:

June 22-28: #FriendsShare a great memory from our games or show us how you enjoy Blizzard’s worlds with your buddies!

June 29-July 5: #EpicShow us the most epic moments you’ve experienced in game or as a Blizzard gamer!

July 6-12: #FunHow do you embrace your fun side?

July 13-19: #BattleThe toughest battles don’t always occur in the arena… or do they?

July 20-26: #CuteBlizzard’s worlds are full of snarling Orcs, vicious Zerglings, and fire-spewing demons… can you show us the cute side?

July 27-August 2: #BlizzardIRLSometimes universes collide and we bring gaming culture to the real world. When have you experienced Blizzard IRL?

In addition, we’ll select the top 10 submissions from all the entries, and then give you the chance to vote for your favorite during gamescom. The winners will each receive some awesome physical loot. Head over to http://www.blizzgc.com for more details!

Raid Testing: June 10

Watcher

We are aiming to get a new build onto the PTR on Tuesday, and will be using Wednesday, June 10, to revisit a couple of Mythic encounters in the new build. As is always the case with PTR raid testing, it is quite possible that there will be technical or gameplay issues that disrupt our plans. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below on all PTR servers.

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a PTR environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Important Testing Notes

Q: How do I get into the raid zone?

A: In Stormwind, Orgrimmar, and your garrison, you may speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade in order to teleport into the raid zone while it is open for testing. (The option to teleport into a zone will not be available when the zone is not open for testing.) You can also teleport to Tanaan and just walk in the standard entrance.

Q: How long does testing last?

A: The primary purpose of testing is to give us the information we need to balance the encounters, evaluate how mechanics are playing out in practice, and identify bugs. Once we're satisfied that we've received that information for a given boss, we'll be shutting down testing. Usually this takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but there are no guarantees.

评论

评论来自 Winfree

on 2015-06-09T13:57:53-05:00

Good luck, Paul Sams.

评论来自 wingram

on 2015-06-09T14:51:04-05:00

I wish we had more notice about eliminating the character copy. I was planning to start fresh and see if some of the earlier bugs were fixed (missing cinematic, multiple Khadgars at shipyard, etc.). The characters I have in the PTR now may also be "defective" in some way (more than 5 ships, already have battleship plans, etc.) so further testing with them may be counter-productive.

评论来自 Nymrohd

on 2015-06-09T15:05:59-05:00

Last built, naval missions were broken. Really bad idea not to let us test with a fresh character this built.

评论来自 flobio

on 2015-06-09T18:07:17-05:00

It's suit that rhymes with root. It's a reference from card games like Bridge or Whist or Pinochle or Hearts, a condition where you have a lot of cards in the same suit (clubs, diamonds, spades or hearts) or most of the high cards in a suit. Also known as long suit.

评论来自 Pelontir

on 2015-06-10T01:11:02-05:00

Nice personal message from Paul Sams, seems like he took a logical step to enjoy family life more.